Asgardia's
founders plan to send up a satellite in 2017 and
eventually build a nation where people can live,
work, and follow their own rules and regulations.

While far from
a reality, Asgardia does bring up questions about
the legalities and logistics of space colonization.

The First
Space Nation
Ambitious plans to create the world's first nation in space were
unveiled this week in the hopes of ushering in a new era in the
space age.

Igor Ashurbeyli, head of the
Aerospace International Research Center (AIRC) in Vienna and
chairman of UNESCO's science of space committee heads the initiative
in close collaboration with a group of scientists, engineers,
entrepreneurs, and legal experts.

Asgardia, named after a city in Norse mythology, will essentially
function as its own sovereign country where citizens can eventually
live, work, and follow their own rules and regulations - that is, if
everything goes according to plan.

Ashurbeyli hopes to secure UN
recognition for Asgardia, a nation of scientific exploration free of
geopolitical restrictions, but no word yet on whether that will
actually happen.

Besides joining the UN, the founders' ultimate goal is to build a
high-tech shield in space that will protect their fellow humans on
Earth from,

The first step, however, is to send up
its own satellite in 2017 and begin efforts to open up access to
space.

Image Credit:
Asgardia

Asgardian
Citizenship for All

The project is still in its early stages, but the team behind it is
hoping that the publicity it gathers now will attract talent willing
to work on making Asgardia a reality.

That talent can be anyone, as Asgardia
has opened citizenship up for everyone on Earth, but what does being
part of this nation mean?

Basically, Asgardians will remain physically on Earth, but also
become a citizen of this new space nation, which the founders hope
will one day join the United Nations.

Eventually, those citizens could travel
to the space nation.

"We have not seen any nation attempt
this before. So this will be a first," Ram Jakhu, an Asgardia
founding member,
told Business Insider.

"We'll start small and eventually
people will be going there, and working, and having their own
rules and regulations… This facility will become an independent
nation."

Details regarding the feasibility of
this audacious plan are vague.

No clarifications have been made on
whether or not current space laws would allow for a country to
declare itself as an autonomous, sovereign entity in space.

Similarly, technical details, logistics,
and funding on the project have not been detailed, but the project
does bring up important questions about how space colonization
should be handled in the future.

There have long been speculations that
humans may have the potential to live elsewhere in the universe, but
the majority of us just find ourselves fantasizing, or even shutting
off from the idea because it's almost too much to handle.

But with recent news that planet Mars
might be able to sustain human life, and the possibility that
humans may already be on Mars, it
seems anything is truly possible.

But there's more than just
the Red
Planet on our radar, plans for the "first nation state in space"
have been revealed by a team of scientists and legal experts, who
claim the move will allow for peace, create access to space
technologies, and give citizens of Earth protection.

Called "Asgardia," the team says that
the "new nation" will become a member of the United Nations. It will
have its own flag, anthem, and be made up of members of the public
through a series of competitions.

The floating nation has the
potential to host 100,000 citizens.

Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli of the
Aerospace International Research Center revealed the plans in
Paris, the same day he became chairman of UNESCO'S Science of Space
committee.

"flourish free from the tight
restrictions of state control that currently exist."

The mission behind the "nation,"
according to Ashurbeyli, is to serve as protectors of the Earth, and
will begin by constructing a shield to guard Earth from debris,
asteroids, and coronal mass ejections coming from the sun.

"Physically the citizens of that
nation state will be on Earth; they will be living in different
countries on Earth, so they will be a citizen of their own
country and at the same time they will be citizens of Asgardia.

"When the number of those
applications goes above 100,000 we can officially apply to the
UN for the status of state."